Compensation for Slavery?

Yesterday the Observer newspaper ran an article about a landmark case that would give fresh hope to people who have been held against their wishes in sub-human bondage. As I settled down to an enlightened read about the long overdue compensation from the West to Africa and its Disapora, the slowly erupting excitement quickly imploded as I realised they were not talking about the Atlantic Slave Trade. Alas, I had gotten hold of the wrong end of the stick. The story was centred around Niger and related to the current enslavement of 40,000 Africans by Africans, not millions enslaved hundreds of years ago by non-Africans.

Of course, I join Anti-Slavery International in campaigning for an end to the practice. Slavery regardless of who enforces it is abhorrent, and the women held in Niger and other parts of the world deserve compensation and more. But as I recount the 'celebrations' of the bicentennial of the passing of the Abolition of Slavery Act 1807 and the muted outcry of the white world saying 'get over it; it is in the past; we did not perpetrate it', I wonder at the global structural hypocrisy. It seems that that the world is just not comfortable when we dare to remind them of the milions of black people that suffered beatings, unpaid work, gruelling hours, starvation and rape. My friends laugh and remark on my naivety at expecting anything less or more from people who continue to benefit from the spoils of their slave master ancestors. After all, that kind of slavery was a long time ago...wasn't it?